Thursday, February 23, 2006

Loose Feathers #26

News and links about birds, birding, and the environment.
  • Last week the Baltimore Sun profiled Jim Peters, a 75-year-old birder who has been leading bird walks in the wetlands at Fort McHenry in Baltimore for many years.
  • One month ago a sewer line leaked effluent into the Watts Branch, a tributary of the Anacostia River that flows past Kenilworth Park. The leak has since been fixed, and the WASA is testing the rest of the line. Strangely enough, it appears that testing for health hazards has not been done.
  • Wildlife biologists at the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming are kept in the office handling paperwork for gas drilling claims instead of monitoring wildlife in the field. As a result, the impact of the drilling boom in Wyoming is left largely unknown.
  • A case argued yesterday at the Supreme Court could have a significant impact on clean water regulations.
  • Unknown hunters killed 184 Canada geese, scaup, and buffleheads, and dumped the bodies along the side of a road in northern Delaware.
  • In Scotland, someone spray-painted a swan blue.
  • A kiwi recently hatched at the National Zoo.
  • Cheney Watch: The shotgun fiasco has now largely been drowned out by the ports-sale controversy, but there is still some coverage of the incident. The NY Times describes how quail are prepared and indicates that quail are quite a delicacy for Texas aristocrats. Coturnix worked the species ID angle a few days back (with pictures). Meanwhile, the quail spoke out at a White House press conference.
  • Orac, at his new home at ScienceBlogs, has pointed out and debunked some new scams that take advantage of the bird flu hysteria.
  • Bill of the Birds has a photo that gives definitive proof that there is a pileated woodpecker in his backyard.